A/N Happy New Years to everyone! Sorry this is out so late, but from Christmas through New Years I was unable to type anything due to lack of time. And thank you to my fantastical reviewers who, because there are so many, I won't list them all here and now. But know that you are all appreciated for what you do.

Just so you, the reader, know, the long bit of italics beginning with the phrase Five or six years younger is Sam's dream. The regular, nonitalicized text witin this is Sam's thoughts. This is my way of doing dreams or flashbacks. And, just so you know when a dream/flashback begins, I will always put a colon after the phrase directly before it (unless it is its own section or chapter). For safety's sake, I'll always mention a dream/flashback in the Author's Note up here.

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman owns the Danny Phantom universe. I, however, own this story.

Chapter 4

Sam crawled slowly back into bed, this time dressed in proper nightclothes. She was never one for the frilly nightgowns her mother once insisted she wear; they always made her feel like she was sleeping in a tutu. She made herself comfortable in one of her old t-shirts, long enough that it trailed down a few inches past her thighs. She lay under the covers of Danny's bed, thinking about what had just happened. How the hell did I end up kissing him? It was just like my dream...

She suddenly sprang back up, forgetting her drowsiness. Wait, it was just like my dream? What was I dreaming? Sam tried to remember, closing her eyes and allowing the images to drift back to her:

Five or six years younger. That would put her at about fourteen or fifteen. Something like that.

Wait a second, that wasn't her signature shirt-n-skirt that she was wearing. No, that wasn't it at all.

She took a moment to look at herself in one of the long, full length mirrors in the hallway. It was beautiful. Her hair was half up in two buns with spikes of hair hanging out. She'd decided to go with the purple eyeshadow that night, along with some darker purple lipstick and a bit of glitter around her cheekbones. Her dress was utterly gothic and gorgeous. The top was a black corset with fishnet material for her sleeves, which hugged her every curve. The bottom was loose, floorlength purple silk. Her neck was adorned with a black choker and her purse was black with a small violet skull.

Oh, right, This was the first dance of freshman year. She remembered that.

Suddenly the dream skipped forward, past some of the other events that she knew had taken place that night: being picked up by Tucker, of all people; talking to Paulina, that shallow witch, in the bathroom; turning into a dragon ghost after Paulina insulted Danny. It skipped right to the part where she had asked Danny to dance.

"Look, the DJ's still playing," Sam noticed, "And I think there's time for one last dance." She didn't show it, but she was nervous as hell.

Danny smiled. "Sure, I'd love to." Sam's smile grew as she took his arm. Danny, with a satisfied look on his face, placed the cursed amulet in Tucker's hands. "Keep an eye on this, will ya?" And with that, he and Sam walked to the dance floor, Danny arms hesitantly holding her by the waist and Sam's arms around his neck.

Sam snuck a mischievous look at Danny. "Promise me you'll keep your pants up?"

"I'll do my best," he replied with a nervous grin.

Then, without warning, Sam stumbled backwards, but quickly regained her composure. Danny, unfortunately, hadn't had quite that much luck; he had fallen onto the gym floor, which didn't look all that comfortable. He looked up at her, his beautiful ice blue eyes dancing over her form. His trademark smile came to his face as he looked at her face, at her eyes. "Sam," he breathed, quiet under the music.

Sam smiled. She knew what she wanted. "Danny," she sighed, laying down beside him. They were both on their sides facing the same direction, with Sam in front. She could feel the warm chill from his body right behind her. She shivered. This never happened at the dance, peeped a small voice in the back of her head.

She started to roll to her other side, but Danny's arms came from behind, wrapping comfortably around her waist. She had loved him since the seventh grade and this was what she knew she wanted from him. She turned in his arms to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She rubbed her cheek against his, smiling at how soft his skin was. He wore a somewhat uncomfortable look on his face, but she realized it wasn't that he didn't like what she was doing. No, he seemed to like it quite a bit, if the hard-on was any indication. Holy shit, I'm turning him on! Sam thought to herself.

She moved her face so that their noses were touching, their mouths mere centimeters apart. His heartbeat was quickening; hell, so was hers. She'd always wanted her first kiss to be with Danny, and here it was. Less than an inch away. To hell with it! She leaned in and kissed him with all she had. Sam smiled as she felt Danny's arms tighten around her waist. She pulled one of her hands up to his messy black hair, wanting to taste more of him.

Apparently, he had the same idea.

That was, of course, when she'd woken up. Now, she'd known that none of the kissing or the cuddling had actually happened; that was just her brain's way of manipulating her memories to become what she wanted them to have been. Because that makes so much sense...But she was still puzzled. What the hell had happened so that she was kissing Danny in real life?

Was I really sleepwalking?

- - - - - - -

Three hours of sleep, four at the most. Sam was dead tired. She'd spent all night thinking, and for what? Well, not much. Her brain had never worked at its full potential when she was that tired. Apparently it didn't work all that well in the mornings, either. She didn't really register the sound of running water in the bathroom. She didn't register the whistling, either. She just wanted a shower to wake herself up.

What she didn't count on was coming face to face with a showering Danny.

The shower was, of course, glass. Sam decided right then that the powers-that-be in the universe either really liked her or really hated her.

For some reason, Sam didn't turn away. She felt the blush rising on her cheeks, but she stayed rooted. All of those muscles she had seen the day before under his shirt...wow, ghost hunting did have its advantages. And all those scars. Sam remembered many from when she'd attempted to heal him herself back in high school. There were the ones from Skulker, three swipes across his right upper arm. One rather winding scar from Technus across his chest. One from Plasmius that took an entire week to heal, snaking across his back.

Sam allowed her gaze to wander slightly lower. I feel like a goddamn voyeur! His lower back was covered in short scars, probably from Valerie. His...thighs also looked torn up. She didn't recognize any of those, though. It must have been from college. Now, there were likely more ghosts, dangerous ones, than there had been in high school. Danny was lucky to have even lived this long with all of those ghosts targeting him all of the time.

Danny had been whistling the whole time, eyes closed, oblivious to Sam's presence. Just as Sam had began to...look lower, Danny's eyes flew open in search of the soap. Of course, he hadn't expected to see Sam blushingly staring at him in the doorway. His own face was tinged red as hundreds of questions buzzed around in his head. He froze in place, not even attempting to cover himself. After a moment of struggling, he emitted a squeaky, "Sam?"

Sam's face snapped up, eyes wide in horror and cheeks blushing more furiously than ever before. She quickly cast her eyes downward at the floor, muttered a soft "Sorry," and backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Danny, needless to say, was still in a state of shock. His best friend, the girl he'd had a huge crush on for years, just saw him completely naked. Why didn't she just turn away and leave? That's what she expected me to do last night. Although she wasn't naked. He turned off the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. Not that it really matters, she's seen it all already, he thought bemusedly.

He walked into the living room, smirking as he saw Sam sitting on the couch with a face as red as a tomato. She didn't dare look at him as he sat beside her; she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, though she doubted her face could get any redder. Danny, however, looked straight at her and, still smirking, asked, "So, Sam, when do you plan on returning the favor?"